Leaderboard

Well, so much for "live"... it all happened so quickly! Leamington Spa was achieved quickly on the train, with a man smelling strongly of weed sitting behind me. On arrival, @grogeeawaited me in this Puma. A short drive later, and what awaited me but the Saab of many shiters! Deals were finalised, shit was chatted, paperwork was done and I headed off. No Pez shot unfortunately as I did pay at pump, and it would have looked a bit daft. At least when you're paying at the kiosk you can be subtle about photographing your car... But, here's a shot of it with the Rover. Thanks @grogee for an easy buying experience and being a thoroughly decent chap.

Harrison's History #56 - Daewoo Leganza Mine's a @Mine's a Leganza! Leganza! More to follow...

I did use to have one. Never took it round the 'Ring though.

That'll do.

They say you should learn from the mistakes of others. I’m obviously a bit slow on the uptake, especially given another shiter’s recent experiences of old British metal. Not content with one car capable of throwing ruinously expensive bills, and timed perfectly to coincide with a global recession, I spent a load of my now near worthless pounds on this: The best bit: Back in a bit, there’s someone at the door in what looks like a white coat, holding something that looks suspiciously like a rolled up straitjacket.

Quite a local collection so probably going to be quite a short thread, barring any disasters. So, collection time. Vital stats: Poo count: 0, can't see it increasing from there in such a short time. Breakfast: bacon sanger, with brown sauce. Began the journey on foot, with a roughly 3 mile walk into Nuneaton Town centre. Could have taken a bus, but I am tight felt like some exercise. Would have been quite boring to document, so I didn't bother starting this thread until now. Another lovely* day in paradise*... Bonus bimmer spottage: Nuneaton Station achieved, where my train was already waiting: Waiting to depart now, should be in a few minutes.

I actually stopped the car and reversed back to take this one and its not often I deem that necessary. But look!

Mystery solved

What rubbish did I end up liberating, then? I'm not really sure why, but - this lot: The silver car is, reportedly, a VW Golf. Or, going by its own decorations, a W Go. It's endearingly rubbish, with its solid rear window. Equally crap is this - which helpfully announces its lineage on the roof: So we can infer that it's a Mercedes 450 SLC, and to be fair the proportions do look vaguely correct. This one, however, is more of a mystery: But I think it's an attempt at a MK3 Escort. The overall shape seems not too far off... While the rear lights do approximate that of the real thing. Kinda. (Rubbish pics, I know) The Fiat 131 is the one that attracted my attention - again, a valiant if ultimately underwhelming effort to have a bash at Fiat's family saloon of the 1970s. It could be almost anything, but the roof tampo, Hofmeister kink to the rear window, and rear light treatment give us a clue. It gets a back window, too. Fancy. All of these are seemingly made by High Speed in Macau - not that the bases give very much info. The next one I nearly didn't get - I thought it was a BMW approximation until I looked closer: I'd no idea anyone had ever modelled a Vauxhall Carlton Mk2/ Opel Omega A in this scale. I mean, it's objectively crap and all, but still - a little fascinating all the same. Not so much cast-in details, as pressed lightly against the mould. No maker's details beneath. Anyone else familiar with this one? Finally, this - which just amused me. I believe it's meant to be some sort of bodykitted Toyota Supra - I've definitely seen a better rendered version of this before - but, hilariously, it's gone through the tampo printing machine backwards and the so-cool flame effect for the roof now just looks like a pelican's shat on the windscreen. Have you ever had a pelican shit on your windscreen from a great height? Don't, you won't like it. It happened to me while driving through a small town in eastern Australia and I initially thought someone who didn't much care for out-of-towners had just thrown a bucket of yoghurt at my Holden Jackaroo. So yeah - that's my mildly scatalogical reason for picking this one up. The production date wheel on the base gives me a moulding date of May 2010 for this one, so it's maybe the newest. They're awful. They're rubbish. I don't even know why I bought them. All I can hope is that Alan spends my £3 wisely, and that I don't get rumbled trying to smuggle all these in through the front door... And finally, a big shout-out to St George's Market - I've been thinking and thinking, and I genuinely don't believe there's any other place on earth where one can procure a 1970s Danish scale model of a bus, a seasonal flu jab, some hoover bags, and a sausage soda sandwich all under the same roof. Gawd bless it.

I couldn't wait to finish work for the day and get to work on the 1/24 Bburago Mercedes I bought from @Jon today. I decided the best thing to do was to take it apart so I could give it a thorough clean at the same time. The steering wheel was detached as per most 1/24 BBuragos rhat don't have a steering function however it was on the back parcel shelf. Reattached. I gave everything a good clean with a tiny screwdriver sheathed in an antibacterial wipe. It looks great now. Now to get the rest of the collection on the shelves (not the shoes).

Time for more B&W pics from the past, around 1970/1 I believe. We'll stick in the north Derbyshire / South Yorkshire area but look at Booth and Fisher, an operator swallowed up by South Yorkshire PTE in 1975 but which operated both local services and excursions from it's depot in Halfway (now the depot of Trent / Barton's TM Travel). B&F were massive AEC operators in later years, most bought new, but did have other makes so we'll start there. CEX491 was one of 5 Albion Nimbuses (nimbi ?) with Willowbrook bodywork that were new to Great Yarmouth Corporation. B&F also purchased three other Nimbi from Welsh Operators. Another oddity was 9575F, one of a a pair of Bristol SC4LK with ECW bodywork which had been new to Eastern National in 1958 Surprising purchases were a pair of dual purpose Willowbrook bodied Ford R192s in 1970. DWA402H is seen here on hire to Sheffield United Tours , they lasted only 4 years. Apart from these, almost all B&Fs single deckers were AEC Reliances with various bodyworks, but they had a pair of very rare (again bought new) Park Royal bodied Monocoaches (basically a semi integral Reliance), here's WRA 12 which is now preserved. Alongside it is 518GRA, a Roe bodied Reliance new in 1958. Another Roe bodied example was 843URB new in 1961 but following sever accident damage it received this dual door Marshall body. It's seen here on Arundel Gate in Sheffield on it's regular haunt. Also Roe bodied, but purchased second hand from Donny Corporation in 1970 when just 9 year old was 8630DT. Nice bit of history in the background (that's a pit for our younger readers). Also purchased second hand was TCY662, a Marshall bodied Reliance new to South Wales in 1960. I was involved in her scrapping and several mechanical components were swapped onto 1322WA, my Plaxton bodied Reliance now owned by the South Yorkshire Transport Museum. Finally the newer stuff, Those were the days.

Had a bit of a play-around with the wheels on the bus: Not that easy to see, but the pinions that hold the steering assembly on are mounted at a near-45° angle, so the wheel camber changes as it's turned... As I say, the steering seems to be sprung so it reverts to centre once pressure is released - and so can't be displayed with the wheels turned outward - but it also seems to function as a sort of Tiptronic steering, where pressing down on one side near the front while pushing it makes the bus turn in the opposite direction. Nice. Although also mildly embarrassing when your senior manager walks in and catches you shoving a tiny bus across your desk, oblivious to everything... I guess I could have claimed it was something to do with estimating the radial widths of proposed bus lane junctions in the new Belfast Harbour redevelopment scheme, but instead I just went a bit red and pretended to be getting on with typing up meeting minutes...

Interior is lovely, only negative is that the heel pad has fallen apart. There is a full set of the correct lambswool overrugs with the car, but my feet don’t fit properly with them in place. Weirdly for a car that is eighteen feet long and requires it’s own postcode, the space for the driver is best described as ‘cosy’ - the seat is at maximum travel and drop and I’m still wedged in tight, though I’m a bit taller than average to be fair. The 40 mile drive home was mega - half spent marvelling at the fact that I’ve actually got one and half spent giggling at the way it gathers pace. It’s not quick by hot hatch or sports saloon standards (book time is something like 6 secs to 60) but the shove is immediate and relentless. What is apparent is that it needs some gentle-ish regular use - the previous owner kept it well but barely used it and things were beginning to get a bit stiff - the boot needed opening on the key before the electronic boot release got the memo that it was supposed to work. Plan is to use it until the end of October occasionally, then it’ll come off the road until the council stop spreading salt. It’s already had the sills done and was recently resprayed so it’s worth keeping it good. Tyres are all pretty much life expired, some perishing and all near the wear indicators - a set of Bridgestones will be around £650 in the required 255/50/18 fitment which I don’t reckon is too bad, and the car even came with a Ctek battery conditioner for leaving it over winter. Tyres will be done at the end of winter so as not to leave new rubber standing. Only thing I’d like for it is some sort of aux input for my phone and music, it has an Alpine radio/cassette head unit with Sat nav system in the top of the dash, so there must be a way in there. I don’t want to change the head unit though.

Parting with old friends! The Visa 17RD we have had for 7+ years. This car was very much duplication of the other Visa 17RD we have had for the last 13 years. I still have an unnatural liking for Citroen Visas, which I first owned 20 years ago and sold them new from a Citroen dealer in 1987. We have had the BMW 735i SE 14+ years. Following Mrs6C's purchase of an E46 we joined the BMW Car club and our local group leader was a strong promoter of the E32 7 series. I was sucked into E32 ownership and valentine's day 2008 we placed a blind eBay bid on this 735i and won. Lots of memories followed, I have driven it at a steady 125 mph on a German Autobahn and taken it round the Nürburgring ring at full tilt following my friend in a Mercedes 450 SEL. The longest single non stop drive of any car I have driven was in this BMW 735i SE, 7 1/4 hours Milton Keynes to Edinburgh on a Friday after work and I still felt comfortable on arrival. It will be missed but I have a 1971 BMW 3.0 S which I plan to use more. Both are sold to a Film car supply company and will be available for you to rent for your filming needs!

So, y'know the way we've had discussions here in the past about 'charm', and how certain models just seem to have it? This one has it. In spades. Ooft. So, it's a Kirk model of a Mercedes-Benz O302 bus - not a name I've heard of before. Some exceeding light Google-fu links it to Tekno, but I dunno if they acquired Kirk or if it was the brand they used for buses. More research required! But it's glorious. Quite a detailed working steering mechanism, with not only angle but also camber. I'll try to get a better pic of this - it's sprung, and I don't have enough hands to hold it, turn the wheels and take a photo too. Gem-cut glass headlights look like they're actually glowing. Engine detailing is ridiculously good for the era. And, of course the engine flap opens. Everything opens. Everything. The detail is simply tremendous on this. Dash, steering column - the works. And get a load of the wheeltrims. The seats are individually moulded and fitted, not just part of a general interior moulding. Floors and steps are textured, too, and the casting is so crisp, with vents and badging really neatly modelled. While I'm not that much of a bus fanboy, it's hard to express just how delighted I am with this. It's far from perfect, but I reckon it should still display well. And there's even a vague local link - a trial Ulsterbus O203 used to do the airport express between the Europa bus centre and Belfast International Airport at the tail end of the 1960s, and this isn't all that far off its livery. So - I think this was worth arriving in work with wet feet! Happy Friday, cats and kittens.

So I scuttled back to the market just after 12, with the rain still bucketing down. My hope was that the inclement weather would have discouraged many further diecast fondlers from rocking up to trawl the stall in the intervening hours. There were a goodly amount of buses remaining, and it was a good/ bad result for @RoadworkUK (delete as applicable): OOC Wallace Arnold Plaxton Premiere on a W-reg, and an EFE Grey Green Plaxton Paramount 3500 wearing a D-plate. Both look in as lovely a condition as you might wish - possibly never even out of their boxes - and not bad value at a fiver each. Yours whenever you want them, dude! Sadly for @bunglebus, it seems that someone else had nabbed the Dinky Beetle at full asking, or else had come to an arrangement of sorts with Market Blokey. And the Lesney Foden too. He was away from the stall when I arrived, so I only hope it wasn't anything depraved. Because there are still loads of tourists filing through the market every Friday, it wouldn't surprise me if some were taking advantage of their suddenly very favourable exchange rate to stump up £10 for a very banged-up VW. Beetles may appeal to those not otherwise very interested in diecast? There were a few other buses now rather more visible on the stall: The other Plaxton Paramount appealed to me as it looked exactly like the kind of down-at-heel private hire coach we'd go be loaded onto for school trips in the mid-90s - but ultimately I felt it might be a purchase too far. I'm trying to keep it 1/43 or thereabouts for the collection. Another sweep up top gave me more time to look at another Tekno bus that I also thought I'd taken pics of this morning, but obviously not: This was nice. Really nice. I probably would have bought this over the Mercedes, except... That missing engine cover would have bugged me forever. Shame, as it was really very minty otherwise. Not sure what word's been blanked out on the baseplate - 'Vabis', possibly? But hey ho. I'd overlooked this less common variant of the Matchbox Rolamatics Police Patrol earlier, in amongst the militaria: But otherwise there wasn't much else to grab my attention. I took a turn round the other stalls, but there wasn't an awful lot. Alan's Emporium was back, it seemed - having been absent since mid-2021 - but all he had on the stall were a few boxless Days Gone and some Pixar Cars models, so thankfully I wasn't tempted. Although he did have a tray out. And they were only 50p. But luckily they were all just cheapo Chinese rubbish and therefore of no interest. No interest at all... Oh.

This has just been acquired. The wheel bearing drones more than Nigel Mansell after a disco biscuit and the (slipping) clutch is so high it'll probably have to go to rehab before being replaced. The heater is stuck on hot (internet search says kinked pipe behind stereo) and the MOT runs out in a few weeks' time.

...shuffling around supermarkets, trolley broadside across the aisle blocking everyone while you scour the chiller unit, squinting through your 'wrong' glasses, looking for the ultimately smooth yoghurt

Oh, and in all the bus excitement I forgot to highlight this shite delight on one of the other stalls this morning: Yup, a very 1980s Betacom 'Betacar phone' in the shape of a Mercedes R107 SL hardtop... "Talk in style"? You betcha.

After Sunday's shite in the park we went to see a BX I'd enquired about over the weekend. I didn't end up buying it but Ged did and I drove it back to the unit. It seems to go well enough although I was scared to drive it too hard as it had been off the road for a while and fuel gauge was either at zero or inoperative. It goes up and down fine too. It's had a wee bump on the rear corner but damage looks superficial.

An 850 TDI with a threatening aura.

It's been all hands on deck here because of the wind. All the trucks and trailers have been put on the windward side to act as a wind break to shelter the tent. Performance still going on. Broken window in a bunk door that I had to temporarily board up in the pissing rain. I had to hold the door of the girls changing unit against the wind so they could get in and out. Aren't I the gent. My bus is rockin good. Starting the move to Ascot tomorrow.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/134225205101?hash=item1f4072176d:g:qaQAAOSwG0NjGf3q

this just popped up on my fb feed which, on double checking, belongs to our very own @maxxo made me smile too

I think it's a Saab 99?

I've been crazy busy with work this month, hence the lack of custom diecast. I have had a fiddle with the new 240 drift wagon, mainly a wheel swap, interior repaint and a bit of detail including possibly the most pointless thing I've ever done to a die cast - a couple of tiny dots of glow in dark paint for the eyes of the dogs that you can't even see. I also tried to tint that yellow glass which turned into a disaster - there were marks on the sunroof part right out of the blister that wouldn't polish off, but I gave it a thorough clean and used black tail light tinting spray (i.e. meant for plastics). Loads of it hazed up so I tried sanding it all off, which is a PITA due to the B post being part of the glass, then I was going to clear lacquer it and go over that with the tint. It hazed in exactly the same places again, so I had to go and buy another one just for its glass! Wheels are a bit sticky-outy but I can correct that. I'll probably go full custom with one of these at some point but that chrome interior was offending me deeply. Beige all the way with this one. Painted the nitrous bottle too, not that it shows! Better

Carlton Diesel. I'd never noticed it before but was the bonnet power bulge a diesel thing? https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1492840384565267

It appears that the Merc bus was also available with Tekno badging too. Not sure which name came first - but, having checked out some of the eBay pricing, I don't think a paying tenner for it was at all unreasonable. Seems that it was also available in kit form, in a different box - so I wonder if Kirk was the brand name put on kit versions of Tekno models? Maybe that explains why it all seems to be snapped together, with no rivets, screws or other metal fixings. Interesting! (Well, to me, anyway...)

Not the very best of mornings... But since I've had to drag my arse out of bed and slog up the M2 amidst biblical amounts of road spray, I thought I may as well put my head around the door of the market...

Nothing like stating the obvious. He’s 80 , sentenced to a minimum 30 years, “ will likely due behind bars”.

Buy it off me? That's a great idea! I'll send you my bank details.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/891871791805687

Prime shite spotted in North Norfolk. Complete with my Mondeo lurking in the background.

I haz been to circus. Firstly a big "thank you" to Paul for sharing his afternoon with me and showing me around. Its a great set up there and it looks like Paul has really landed on his feet with this one. I am almost a little envious. I didnt bother photographing the Peterbilt, as its already graced these hallowed pages, but as an ex lighting engineer, I couldnt help but photograph the rather impressive lighting rig inside the big top. I then spent a good 10 minutes thinking this would be ideal tent for putting on a rave, although I am sure the council would most definitely not approve. Anyway, the dancing girls then appeared and my thoughts wandered elsewhere. I shant detract from the show for anyone planning to visit. but it looks a whole lot better than those circusses with donkeys I remembered as a kid. Best of luck with the touring Paul and enjoy Amsterdam when you get there. 🤪 In other news, its good to know that Southsea hasnt changed much since the 70s and can still offer a properly shite dining experience. Managed to catch the hovercraft as I left. Definitely not shite.

Here's a better version of the Celica: It seems to have been quite popular, with various toy/modelmakers giving it a go. As well as the 1:20 kit above Tamiya also did a 1:24 version, which has a little battery motor - I recently put mine back together (but haven't zoomed it across the kitchen floor with the motor).

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/374271977995

Have you got a live feed to my life , you forgot the yellow stickers

Live from their sofa

Ironic t shirt alert

I don’t know but I saw an advert yesterday for a car ‘fitted 3 new tyres’.

My 205 attracts the most interest of any car I've owned. Its one of those cars that everyone either drove or knew someone that did. It was novel the first couple of times, but now I get people trying to talk to me when I'm rushing into Tesco for a shite. It can get old fast.

This is where I am at the moment. Still needs more sanding and filling but forecast is bad so wanted to get a couple of coats of primer on it before the rain sets in: I hate doing bodywork, which probably explains why it’s 30 years since I did any. No matter how much you think it’s smooth and ok, as soon as you put some paint on, all the pits and shit show up. I will persevere!

Once again @Slowsilver helped me today with some winter preparation for our cars that are going to be stored for the winter. It was a busy afternoon moving cars about. We took the BMW 735i to storage as it is being collected in the morning. Much tyre pumping was done. We had to move the E reg Visa, Trevi and BiTurbo to get out the Gamma. Last time I used the Gamma I forgot to switch on the electric fan and it spat out water while sitting idling. We refilled it with 33% antifreeze and all seemed fine, but there was not enough petrol to give it a proper test drive. Following past rodent damage I prepared bait boxes and put them round the shed. While I did this slowsilver checked the antifreeze in the 308 GT4, E Type and 2 Daimler Sovereigns. One section was sweep and the cars put away. More to do next week........

Fitting the 45 with a nice shiny 52mm throttle body resulted in the (not unknown) issue of a high/erratic idle, which while bearable, ideally needs fixing with a minor remap. Shortly afterwards, the exhaust also started blowing from somewhere in the middle section. Easy fixes both. My dilemma is that I'm currently getting an utterly awesome-sounding muffled pop from the exhaust on over-run, and I'm worried that fixing one or both of the above issues will remove it. Such are the quandaries of a shallow twat like myself. On the plus side, the TB's added a shocking amount of low-end torque without much effect on mpg, so no regrets in fitting it.